Jamming by Alex Di Donna

Should somebody ask for the most famous poly analog synth engineers of the good old times, the answer would probably include both Dave Smith and Tom Oberheim.

So it's not a surprise to find that from the collaboration of Smith with Oberheim a really stunning new analog poly synth came out.

It's a 49-keys (with velocity & aftertouch) synth with six notes of polyphony.

The core of the sound engine is a couple of discrete VCOs per voice, inspired to the SEM Oberheim's jewels of the past, coupled with 2-pole filter, and amplifiers.

Modern enhancements such as studio-quality dual effects, a polyphonic step sequencer, an arpeggiator, and more were added to make the sound of the new DSI creation really unique.

And the look is also top-class, as usual in DSI products.

But when it comes to synths, the most important feature is the sound:

Soundcloud demo

Winter NAMM turned out to be the return of analog synthesis. Korg, Arturia, Roland, DSI presented four new real analog synths with different form factors and user targets, but all very attractive for creative musicians. We have presented the Korg Minilogue in a previous article, and now it's the turn of the Roland System-500, a fully analog modular synth. The words "system" and "modular" mean exactly what they say: this synth is a customizable system in Eurorack format you can build starting from individual modules with oscillators, filters, effects and creating your signal paths by means of high quality cables.

Five modules are currently available:

• 512 module - two VCOs with saw, sine and square waves

• 521 module - two VCFs with selectable high-pass filters

• 530 module - two VCAs each with multiple CV inputs

• 540 module - two ADSR envelopes and invertible LFO with five waveform types

• 572 module - classic phase shifter, delay, gate delay and invertible LFO

This modular system sounds very promising!!!